Tapes reveal slices of Montco gambler's life

His gambling associates in New Jersey were keeping lousy records and their business was failing.

In Chicago there was a $51,000 debt that had to be collected.

And down in Florida sat a pile of money that needed to be transported north. The question was whether to put it in a car or take it on a plane.

So, according to detectives, went the day-in, day-out business travails of Joseph Mastronardo Jr., the Montgomery County gentleman gambler now caught in the crosshairs of a bookmaking and money-laundering investigation. Local and federal authorities say they intercepted his phone calls and taped his words.

The tapes, made public Thursday in a sworn affidavit, capture Mastronardo in unguarded moments complaining and cajoling, whining and philosophizing about the state of his business - and of the nation's economy.

Things, he said again and again, were not so good.

Still, the gambling kingpin who authorities believe has made millions of dollars taking sports bets over the last 30 years, was able to keep it all in perspective.

"Times like this, I'm happy I'm still a bookmaker," he said in a conversation recorded eights days ago.

On another tape, however, Mastronardo griped to an associate about customers who were failing to pay their debts.

"You know, for me, to have my expenses and people are taking advantage of me is really very upsetting," he said in one of dozens of pointed but typically disjointed comments sprinkled throughout the affidavit that investigators filed in court.

In another conversation, he counseled an associate against going into the landscaping business because, he said, nobody can afford that kind of work these days.

"Let me tell you something," Mastronardo, 60, said. "I have never seen it this bad financially."

The charges in the pending case, however, suggest that despite his laments, Mastronardo had a thriving business.

Mastronardo, known as "Joe Vito," and his brother John, 54, were arrested Wednesday on gambling and money-laundering charges tied to an expanding investigation that stretches from Florida to New York and that could provide a glimpse into a multimillion-dollar sports-betting operation.

The brothers are held on $1 million bail each. They are also charged with violating the terms of their parole after pleading guilty in 2006 on bookmaking charges.

In fact, according to the affidavit of probable cause made public Thursday, the brothers walked out of court in 2006 after admitting their guilt and went right back into business.

The affidavit, signed by Detectives Steve Forzato and Michael J. Reynolds of the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, includes references to dozens of phone calls recorded over the last month.

The tapes were part of a two-year investigation that also relied on information gleaned from at least two confidential informants, according to authorities.

Several others, including Mastronardo's father, Joseph Sr., and his son, Joey, were also mentioned in the affidavit.

Mastronardo Jr., son-in-law of Frank L. Rizzo, the late Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner, has long been identified as a high-end gambler and bookmaker with a well-heeled clientele.

The current investigation underscores those points.

Authorities reportedly seized nearly $1 million in cash during a search on Wednesday of the house that Mastronardo shares with his wife, Joanna, in the Meadowbrook section of Abington Township. Sources said the cash was found in the house and buried on the property.

Authorities used a backhoe and shovels to dig up the grounds around the European villa-style house on Stocton Road.

Approximately $1 million more was seized in a series of raids conducted at 45 other sites in the Philadelphia area and in Florida, authorities said.

The detectives described the bookmaking operation as "substantial, extremely profitable, and involving bets placed . . . in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Florida."

The tapes cited in the affidavit cover one month beginning Feb. 25 and are believed to be part of a broader electronic surveillance operation.

In all, authorities said, they put taps on five phones used by Mastronardo and his associates.

Typically, the conversations ranged from profane to rambling and unfocused, and then back to profane. Most featured Joe Vito.

"Every . . . week is an excuse," he said in one, complaining about customers' not paying up.

"I'm just sick of these . . . animals using my money," he was quoted as saying on another. "I just can't take it," he said, "because it's . . . ridiculous."

In several conversations he complained about his health. Mastronardo, according to several individuals, has been battling cancer for years.

And in one pointed conversation he went on at length about his brother and longtime business partner.

"My brother just takes a ton off me," he said of John, a former standout football player at Villanova University who got involved in Joe Vito's gambling business shortly after college.

Both brothers were convicted of federal gambling charges in 1987 and served short jail terms.

Joe Vito was quoted as telling an associate that he had been helping his brother financially for decades. "Think about that. Supporting him," he said. "Sixteen years old, I bought him his first car."

Mastronardo then allegedly made a reference to the 2006 gambling case in which he and his brother agreed to give up any claim to $2.7 million that Montgomery County authorities seized then, in exchange for pleading guilty to a lesser gambling charge.

"He was so embarrassed to admit he was in the gambling business, he was in a hurry to give up my money with the . . . bust," Mastronardo was quoted as saying. "It's all about his ego."

During the raids conducted Wednesday, authorities seized all sorts of items they said were part of a gambling operation.

According to the affidavit, these included:

"An entire bookmaking office . . . including computers, monitors and bookmaking records" seized at the Stocton Road house. Authorities also found cash, believed to be about $1 million. "The bulk of that money was found buried in PVC pipe in the backyard."

Documents, records, and $5,300 in cash from John Mastronardo's apartment on West Germantown Pike in Plymouth Township.

Bookmaking records, a money counter, and more than $242,690 in cash found in the home of John Mastronardo and Joseph Mastronardo Sr. in Blue Bell.

Bookmaking records, more than $180,000 cash, and gold coins found in a safe-deposit box in the home of a suspected bookmaker, Harry Piacitelli, in Plymouth Meeting.

Bookmaking records, a money counter, and more than $400,000 cash at the home of another suspected bookmaker, Harry Murray, in Boca Raton, Fla.

A computer, financial documents, and $85,000 in cash taken from the Florida apartment of an unnamed associate of Joseph Mastronardo Jr.

The Mastronardo brothers are due in Montgomery County Court for a preliminary hearing on April 9.

Dennis Cogan, a Philadelphia lawyer who has represented both brothers in the past, said Thursday he believed the case would ultimately land in the hands of federal authorities, who have been working with Montgomery County investigators.

Wherever the case is tried, the wiretapped conversations and Joseph Mastronardo Jr.'s own words are sure to play a major role.

"I'm on probation right now. Think about that," he was quoted as telling an associate on March 8. "So if I get caught, I'm going to get, get a couple of years, right. Think about that."